Lauren Odes of New Jersey says she was terminated from her data entry position at the Manhattan-based lingerie company Native Intimates because her Orthodox Jewish employers thought she was "too hot."

"When I first started working there, I asked what the dress code was, and I was just told to look around and see what everyone else was wearing," the 29-year-old told reporters at a press conference staged by her lawyer-cum-ringleader, Gloria Allred. "So I did. The dress was very casual athletic wear to business attire."

Advertisement

But her bosses allegedly disagreed. According to Odes, she was asked to tape down her breasts and "cover up a little more."

On the day of her termination, Odes says she was made to wear a garish bathrobe over her clothes, and then told she could go purchase a sweater that "went to her ankles." Preferring to appease her supervisor rather than endure the ridicule of her co-workers, Odes went out to buy a sweater. She claims she was in process of shopping for one when she was fired over the phone.

"I do not feel an employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me when I'm working in a business that's not a synagogue, but sells things with hearts on the female genitals and boy shorts for women that say hot in the buttocks area," said Odes, who is Jewish herself.